In following up on my last blog entry, I think there’s another thing rolling around in the mind of Generation X. It’s the fact that the world we grew up in isn’t the world we live in now. That world is gone, and it’s never coming back. You hear the Baby Boomers talk about it and say “oh how precious, the good old days.” But those are the same days that we were raised in. That was the world we were prepared for. And then, lo and behold, it all changed, and we aren’t sure of how to deal. Yet we must, because this is the world that it’s our responsibility to keep turning.

Case in point: I’ve lived in the same town my whole life, but it isn’t the town I grew up in. A new grammar school is being built that will replace the one I went to, which is likely to be demolished soon. The middle school moved over ten years ago, and somebody recently told me that my high school had been renovated to the point that it’s not recognizable. The University of South Carolina has been revamped in the 20 years since Rick and I graduated. A former coworker told me that everybody I used to work with has retired or moved on to other jobs or locations. Yesterday I drove by the building where I started the job I have back in 1999, and it’s up for lease. Even the toy store we used to go to every Friday night has been torn down and rebuilt as a strip mall – twice! There is literally no vestige of my childhood left. The world around me has been rebuilt.

So, what? Were we raised wrong? No, I think the massive shifts in technology, which have changed our society, have surprised everybody. Surly, future generations will be well adjusted to constant change, while we’re the unfortunate generation caught in the middle of keeping a shape-shifting world on the move. And again I ask, what is success? How do we know we’ve arrived, when the definition of success it moving right along with everything else? How do we even know where we are? It’s no wonder this article struck a chord with so many women my age. We were raised to anchor ourselves in something, but nothing stays the same and everything is shifting sand now. We can’t count on things to be the same tomorrow as they were yesterday, like our parents could.

We’re stuck between the blessing and the curse of our times. Everything is changing, and we don’t know how to ride that wave to the best life we can have. So what do we do? Our best. We’ve adapted so far, and we need to continue to believe in our ability to keep adapting. We don’t have to be tossed by these waves. We can ride them to define our own success. The future isn’t what we expected, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t be something great.

We just have to find a new way. So I say, to hell with the mid life crisis. It’s time to get creative and author a new fate. We have some wisdom now, so let’s use it grab some control of this brave new world to find a new way – our own way – into an inventive future.

Who says we’re done? All things are remade. It could be that we’re just getting good and started. Late bloomers produce amazing results that last. The world wants a revolution. I say let's do it out way. As long as we live, it's not too late.

That’s all today. Take care, and have a great week.

Bye!

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Sherri the Writer

By day, I'm a program assistant. By night, I'm an independent author. My fiction is a dark mirror to the reality I see every day.